NEW YORK – Having gone nearly two weeks without scoring more than four runs in a game, a group of Yankees hitters gathered on Thursday morning for an "enough is enough" meeting. It was time for the bats to get going and make a serious playoff run before it got too late.

Then the team took the field and promptly won almost exclusively because of a stellar pitching performance from Brandon McCarthy.

It wasn't the breakout offensive performance the Yankees wanted, but it was exactly the win they needed, a 3-0 complete-game shutout to avoid a series sweep against the Astros. Up next is a weekend series against another losing team, the White Sox.

"We understand that we're a lot better offensively than we've shown," Chase Headley said. "That was kind of the point (of the meeting), to come out with a little bit of fire and hopefully put some runs on the board."

There was some offensive fire for a while. Mark Teixeira, Martin Prado and Headley had three straight hits to open the second inning. Headley's was a two-run double, Ichiro Suzuki lifted a sacrifice fly, and the Yankees had an early 3-0 lead.

But then it was back to the same old story. Leadoff singles were squandered in the fourth and fifth innings, and back-to-back singles were left stranded in the sixth.

The real difference in snapping a two-game losing streak was McCarthy, who continued his terrific run since coming to the Yankees in a July 7 trade with the Diamondbacks. He struck out eight, and retired the first nine and last eight batters he faced. He allowed four hits and no walks.

Before the trade, McCarthy made 17 starts with the Diamondbacks and won just three of them. With the Yankees, he's won five of eight starts, and his 1.90 ERA is the lowest of any Yankees pitcher with at least one start this season.

"I feel confident again," McCarthy said. "I feel like I'm able to get through situations I wasn't there. Then you start to believe you can."

McCarthy said he began to feel fatigued in the fifth inning, but catcher Francisco Cervelli yelled at him on the bench, essentially demanding that he keep going. He finished with his first complete game in more than a year.

"He was angry with me," McCarthy said. "He was like, 'Your stuff's so good, let's go. We're going to get all the way through this.' "

The Yankees' offense is looking for a similar determination with 37 games to play and the team four games out of the second wild-card spot.

"What we've been doing hasn't been working," Brett Gardner said. "So hopefully we can take this momentum, carry it over into the weekend and play some better baseball. … It was a good talk and hopefully we continue to do what we did today — and that's win."

Yankee clippings: With Carlos Beltran likely to miss at least one more game after getting a cortisone shot in his elbow, the Yankees called up utility man Zelous Wheeler and optioned extra reliever Chase Whitley. The Yankees had been carrying a short bench and an extra pitcher for the past three weeks. … Masahiro Tanaka will face hitters on Saturday, his most significant step back from a torn elbow ligament. … Joe Girardi said Beltran is expected to sit out a third straight game on Friday and be reevaluated on Saturday. Beltran had said he hoped to play Friday, but Girardi indicated that's unlikely.

On the Web

Chad Jennings keeps track of the Yankees this season as they strive for a playoff spot at yankees.lhblogs.com